Monday, 7 November 2011

Necrons: The Phalanx Awakes 1750

We have a lot of issues in the Troop selection for Necrons, a lot of bitching about how they used to be 3+ save with 4+ Reanimation, Res Orb and rerolls from the Monolith..

Now we have 5 point cheaper Warriors who lose a point from their save and a point from their Reanimation.

No phase out and Reanimation always happens, unless there is no squad..

Interesting.

So lets throw as many of the little fuckers at the tabletop and see where we can go from there.

This list will take into account the Internet Awesomeness that is Scarabs...

We need an Overlord obviously for Crypteks (Eldritch Lance and Solar Pulse) and to upgrade to a Phaeron for a Relentless unit..he's just 110 points here..

I'm thinking 10 Tesla-wielding Immortals. Great value for their points. No longer T5, but 17 points and can swap out their Rapid Fire blaster for a Tesla Carbine....24" and S5.. more on this later.

I like these boys in this list alot, so lets grab another unit of 10.

This gives us 20 Immortal Troops for 340.

Let's grab 3 squads of 10 Warriors @ 130 points each.

Final troop choice, lets grab a 15 man Warrior unit.. 195 - I'd really love to throw in the Phaeron here so the boys can move up and just let rip with Gauss...giving a decent attempt to mess up a vehicle.

So we now have 65 Necrons in Troops.

These guys then need some support. I like the Harbinger of Destruction Crypteks, I'll grab 4 of them and give one a Solar Pulse.

Each unit of Warriors gets a Harbinger, adding a 36" S8 shot into each unit.

The Solar Pulse has 2 functions, well one really. It allows protects all the boys from fire for a turn and it allows this next unit(s) to get up field and start messing people up.

So the next thing we need to do is grab a shit ton of Scarabs.

3 units. One of 9 and 2 x 8.

Get them into multiple tanks each on Turn 2, being protected from fire by Solar Pulse and starting to Entropic Strike the shit out of the enemy armour.

Swarms - vulnerable to blasts, S6+ and assault. Yup, you read me right, I don't think they can just kill decent sized units quickly enough to then impact the game in the way you want them to.

They will be blocked, tarpitted and bubblewrapped against.. when Scarabs are getting close? And Solar Pulse is in action? Fuck it, get those vehicles moving 12" and protect the AV by Scarabs hitting on 6's.. get your boys out of the transports and bubblewrap..

Now, I can't just walk away from this 'Horde' list without some fire support.

As any of you who ave read all the Necron lists so far will no doubt have noticed, the Annihilation Barge has never not been in one! I think they are just great, and in a list like this? BOOM! Dangerous indeed.

Let's just grab 2 at 1750 and go from there. THey'll be great moving up with the horde and getting shots in versus infantry with 4 Tesla shots and Arc, but most importantly they can start smashing up transports straight away, let alone once Scarabs get stuck in..

So the list then, again not properly balanced, but pushing one aspect of the Necron book:

Phaeron

4 x Harbingers of Destruction, 1 x Solar Pulse

3 x 10 Warriors

1 x 15 Warriors

2 x 10 Immortals - Tesla Carbines

9 Scarabs

2 x 8 Scarabs

2 x Annihilation Barges

Bang on 1750.
Expand to bigger points values? Triarch Stalkers? Wraiths and one less Scarab unit? umm Transports? Barges for HQ's, Multiple HQ's... Stormlord for increased night fight and more cover for scarabs..

So let me know guys, what do we think? Scarabs and Horde necrons? Anything other than assault armies going to struggle to kill all of this with cover and reanimation protocols?

Will the alternative method of anti tank work? This is the mechanic as it is designed to be used I think...

i really think that hybrid, or more specifically, mostly foot, is the way to go with this dex. this is a step in the right direction for sure.

i think i would actually agree with Warflake about removing the barges and getting some spyders, but it is a close call. makes you less succeptable to falling to your own solar pulse though. plus, monstrous creature backup is always nice.

you may be able to tell i am really excited about this release :) i always loved the models but hated the backstory for necrons. if i didnt have a GK army on the go...

It takes an Immobilized result to get autohits against a moving vehicle, but still possible in a hail of Gauss shots.

Imotekh30 Scarabs9 Spyders1125 points, fill in the rest. You can still get at least one Cryptek with Solar Pulse to extend Night Fighting, but now you are assured two turns. First thing you do: Bump all the Scarab units to 13 bases, then the Spyders have to try to keep up. Scuttling Mechanical Horrors From Hell.

MSU squads won't tarpit you for long, remember you can move the Spyders up for MC assaults and they kill ~2.5 MEQ per assault phase on top of what the Scarabs can do.

Against some IG lists where all the vehicles are hub to hub with Chimeras to the front and heavy stuff to the rear, remember when you multiassault Scarabs to make it one mass combat. Do this by having Scarabs from the left and center swarms attack one vehicle together and some from the center and right swarms attack one vehicle together. Now all CC resolution is simultaneous for this mass combat. Which means when you wreck a Chimera in the front rank with Scarabs to the front, Chimeras to the flank and some other vehicle to the rear; there is no place for an emergency debarkation and everybody inside dies...